Hungary to hand over suspect in rugby star killing to France
Hungary to hand over suspect in rugby star killing to France
Loik Le Priol, the main suspect in the murder of former star Argentine rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu in Paris, is to be handed over to France, a Hungarian court ruled Friday.
Judge Judit Csiszar at the Budapest Metropolitan Court said Le Priol had to be handed over to French authorities "within 10 days from today".
Le Priol, 27, was arrested under a European arrest warrant on Tuesday at the Zahony border crossing between Hungary and Ukraine.
Hungarian police said Le Priol told them "he was going to Ukraine to fight" against Russia's invasion of the country.
Officers found three knives in his car, which will also be handed over to French authorities.
A handcuffed Le Priol joined Friday's hearing via videoconference from near the Ukrainian border where he is being held.
Appearing calm and cooperative, he agreed to be sent back to France and declined to say anything else.
His lawyer Laszlo Beno told AFP he expected the French authorities to move "sooner rather than later", adding that Le Priol could be handed over to French police "in the next day or two".
Aramburu, 42, was killed early Saturday after he and some friends were embroiled in a dispute with another group at a cafe in the French capital's chic Saint-Germain neighbourhood.
After leaving the cafe, Le Priol and another suspect are believed to have returned and fired several shots from a car at Aramburu.
- 'Heinous crime' -
The second main suspect in the case, 31-year-old Romain Bouvier, was held on Wednesday in Sable-sur-Sarthe, a small town in western France near Le Mans.
A 24-year-old woman accused of driving the car was detained on Saturday.
Le Priol and Bouvier, both members of the GUD white nationalist group, were already due in court in France in June on charges of beating up a former GUD activist. A video of the beating was obtained by investigative journalism website Mediapart.
The French navy told AFP that Le Priol participated in French military operations in Mali and Djibouti but was repatriated to France in 2015 after a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, and was later discharged because of violent behaviour.
French weekly Marianne reported that Le Priol had already been convicted twice for assault, and once for drunk driving.
Aramburu played as a centre or wing, winning 22 Argentina caps including at the 2007 World Cup in France, where he scored a try as the Pumas beat the hosts in the third-place playoff.
He played club rugby in France for Biarritz, Perpignan and Dax from 2004 to 2010, winning the Top 14 twice with Biarritz and later sitting on the club's board of directors.
Since his retirement from sport, Aramburu had lived in Biarritz and worked for a tourism company.
"This heinous crime and his death have left his family, friends and the world of rugby stunned and in unspeakable pain," a lawyer for Aramburu's family, Yann Le Bras, said in a statement on Sunday.
(H.Duplantier--LPdF)
